Delivering for residents: Guildford Borough Council marks one year of meaningful progress
- strengthen governance
- improve services
- ensure we continue to meet our `Best Value' duty
This latest report outlined the progress made over the past six months. It was accompanied by the Independent Assurance Panel's second assessment.
While progress is encouraging, we recognise that delivering meaningful change requires sustained effort, collaboration, and focus. Housing, contract management and ongoing governance improvement remain our key focus. We're resolute in our ambition to serve residents, communities, businesses, and staff as a resilient and high-performing council.
In speaking at the Full Council meeting, Chair of the Independent Assurance Panel, Andrew Flockhart, said: "The panel believes the Council's Improvement Plan remains fit for purpose, with good progress made in key areas. This has helped the Council plan and deliver improvements more effectively. While the risk to delivering Best Value has reduced, significant challenges remain particularly around the demands of Local Government Reorganisation in Surrey. The Council is clearly improving, but there is still a tremendous amount of work to do to fully deliver the Plan's objectives."
Commenting on the Improvement Plan, Councillor Julia McShane, Leader of the Council said: "Our Improvement Plan is about delivering meaningful change for our residents, making services more responsive, homes safer, and communication clearer. We're closely monitoring its progress, especially as wider changes in local government across Surrey continue to take shape. The work we're doing now will help define how local services are delivered in the future.
"I'm grateful to the Independent Assurance Panel for their continued support and scrutiny during the first year of delivery. Their insight helps us stay focused on what matters most to our communities.
"Our Corporate Delivery Plan, approved in May, sets out the key projects we're delivering this year. It's shaped by careful planning and aligned with our budget, so residents and businesses can see clearly what we're working on, why it matters, and how we're making it happen.
"This is about being open, honest, and accountable. It's our commitment to you, to deliver services that are not only strategic and achievable, but that make a real difference in people's lives. And while there's more to do, I want to thank every resident who's shared their experience, challenged us to do better, and helped shape the journey we're on."
The Panel will continue to meet with us to review progress with the Improvement Plan. They will also provide advice on the work we're undertaking to deliver the Plan.
The Panel will present a further report to us in December 2025.
Read the full report (opens new window)
We're delivering for Guildford. We're building a greener, fairer and thriving community for all. Discover how here: Delivering our strategy - Guildford Borough Council
Published on 30 July 2025.
Previous release about our Improvement Plan
22 July 2025: We are marking one year of strong progress on our Improvement Plan